The present invention relates towing connectors for use in towing vehicles and, more particularly, to such a towing connector, which is easy and inexpensive to manufacture and, which is detachable for easy maintenance.
Various towing connectors for use in towing vehicles are known. Exemplars of towing connectors are seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,951,332 and 6,027,377 (issued to the present inventor), U.S. Pat. No. 6,447,302,B1, and U.S. Des. 409,125. FIGS. 1 and 2 show a similar prior art design. According to this design, the towing connector 8 is comprised of a top cover 81, a sealing cap 82, a rubber cushion 83, a casing 84, a 4-pole female connector 85, a bracket 86, a conducting wire holder block 87, and a 4-pole male connector 88. This conventional design has drawbacks as follows:
1. When the conducting wire holder block 87 set in the tubular shaft 841 of the casing 84 after the connection of the conducting wires 91 to the conducting wire holder block 87, a plastic member 80 must be molded in the casing 84 to fixedly secure the conducting wire holder block 87 and the tubular shaft 841 together (see FIG. 2). After molding, the assembly must be invertedly set in position for drying. It takes about 4xcx9c24 hours to dry the plastic member 80. Therefore, the fabrication of this design of towing connector consumes much time and labor.
2. Because the conducting wires 91 are not detachable from the conducting wire holder block 87 after the molding of the plastic member 80, the user cannot change the number of the conducting wires 91 to fit different male and female connectors. When damaged, the assembly of the conducting wires 91 and the conducting wire holder block 87 become useless and must be thrown away.
3. After installation of the towing connector 8 in a towing vehicle, the conducting wires 91 are exposed to the outside without protection, therefore the conducting wires 91 tend to be stretched or damaged by an external body.
The invention has been accomplished to provide a towing connector, which eliminates the aforesaid drawbacks. According to the present invention, the towing connector comprises housing defining a receptacle, which holds a U-shaped conducting plate and 6 metal contact plates around the U-shaped conducting plate, a 4-pole female connector mounted in an insertion hole in the housing, first conducting wires respectively connected to the metal contact plates, second conducting wires connecting the 4-pole female connector to four of the first conducting wires, a 4-pole male connector connected to the other ends of the four first conducting wires being connected to the second conducting wires, a front cover and a sealing cap pivoted to the housing and forced by a torsional spring to close the receptacle and the 4-pole female connector, a rear cap and a flexible bellows tube adapted to protect the conducting wires, and a bracket detachably fastened to the housing by screws for mounting. By means of loosening the screws, the rear cap can easily be opened so that the maintenance engineer can check or replace the conducting wires. The invention eliminates the employment of the conventional plastic member molding procedure. The metal contact plates are simultaneously and quickly installed in the housing by stamping. Further, the housing has projecting members at the rear side. The projecting members have a respective partition plate of V-shaped cross section adapted to prohibit accidental contact between the metal contact plates.